Apollo 13 (HD DVD)

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"Apollo 13" is now over a decade old and the second oldest title on the format ("Goodfellas" is six years older) and holds up surprisingly well in the High-Definition era. The film´s image may not be as sharp as "Serenity" or "Phantom of the Opera," but the night and day difference against SD is readily apparent. The liftoff of Apollo 13 shows the warmth of the oranges and the cold confines of deep space showcase how well the format handles the cooler colors. "Apollo 13" is a great looking movie. Much of the film takes place in either the small confines of the Apollo spacecraft or the rows of manpower and machine at Mission Control. The vistas of outerspace a few handful of outside locations serve to add variety to the film, but the film could take place entirely in the Apollo craft and still look great. Thanks to HD-DVD, the film looks better than ever.

Sound:
Still saddled with some hardware issues, my system is taking the Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 mix and pretending it is a DTS 5.1 soundtrack. I have procured a solution to connect the Toshiba DVD-A1 to the six analog inputs on my receiver via a switchbox, but the couple hundred dollars of cables to purchase guarantees that "Apollo 13" will still be heard in pseudo-DD Plus. Ah, the pains of a new technology. Regardless, "Apollo 13" still packs a wallop when it needs to. A few moments stand out in "Apollo 13," the initial liftoff sequence is a subwoofer rumbler and the explosion that cripples the craft is another audible standout. They sound good. However, when compared to the original DVD, there isn´t much of a difference. Dialogue does come across a little cleaner on the HD transfer and bass is deeper, but for the most part there is not a lot of difference. Some of this could be attributed to the oddity of communication between the HD-DVD player and my receiver that is allowing the digital track to be used as a DTS track, but a quick comparison of "Doom" between HD-DVD and standard DVD showed more improvement. Perhaps the age of the film has something to do with the similarities. Regardless, no real complaints against the soundtrack, but it is far from being something to get excited about.

Extras:
As is the case with all of the initial HD-DVD releases, "Apollo 13" is a port of the previous standard DVD edition. Namely, the Anniversary edition DVD – minus the shorter 1.66:1 IMAX cut of the film. There are a large number of supplements to be found, including some that appear on both the original DVD and the Anniversary disc. It is amazing that this 140 minute long film can be squeezed on a single layer with a couple hours worth of supplements and dual commentary tracks. I´m a giddy schoolboy when it comes to thinking of what the future holds for this format.

The major supplements include two running commentary tracks and a few nice commentaries. The first commentary track stars Opie, himself – Ron Howard. Ron Howard does a good job with this commentary track. He talks through most of the film´s long running time and offers up a lot of good information. The second track features the real life Lovells, Jim and Marilyn. They offer an authentic recount of the true events and point out some of the artistic choices made by Ron Howard. Both tracks are a good listen and are have appeared on the original DVD, Anniversary disc and now on the HD-DVD. The nearly hour long "Triumph of Apollo 13" also makes a return journey and is included here. This documentary features most of the principal players in the film and many of those that were involved in the actual crisis. The documentary and commentary tracks are nice inclusions, though I did not spend much time with them here after sitting through them for the original DVD. A few items were missing from the original disc. These included the text and menu based supplements and the theatrical trailer. I miss the trailer, but never got much into the menu supplements. Also missing is the ´Easter Egg´ featuring the film´s theatrical score in its entirety.

A few supplements appeared previously on the Anniversary DVD, but not the original release. The most significant of these is the 45 minute long documentary, "Conquering Space: The Moon and Beyond." Focusing on the history of the great space race between the cosmonauts and the astronauts, the documentary features many interviews about Apollo 13 and the space race. A second commentary carried over from the Anniversary disc is the 15 minute long "Lucky 13: The Astronauts Story." This is a fairly recent set of inverviews with the three Apollo 13 astronauts and includes a teary-eyed Gene Kranz. Did you know that Jim Lovell originally thought Kevin Costner would have been a good pick to portray him? Yup.

Parting Thoughts:
"Apollo 13" is a movie I have always enjoyed. It features some of my absolute favorite actors, all in one film. Kudos go out to Universal for bringing a decade old classic to the format. It is nice to know we won´t initially be bombarded by just the latest releases while HD-DVD is in its infancy. The transfer of "Apollo 13" simply destroys the original 1998 DVD release in visual quality. It is not even close. The sound quality is good, but only a marginal improvement. Still, this may be due to a hardware issue surrounding the Toshiba player. I will update this review is something changes after the issue is resolved. The features are carried over from the Anniversary edition, but notable omissions include the IMAX version of the film and the film´s isolated soundtrack, which was a poorly hidden easter egg on previous releases.

When compared to the current batch of films, I have to say that "Apollo 13" is my best all-around recommendation. The film is only trumped visually by "Phantom of the Opera." Only "Serenity" sounds better. The movie is the best overall story of the DVD releases, though I guess you could argue "Million Dollar Baby." However, there are only eight titles currently out and the format is young. If you are an early adopter, then I don´t see any reason why you shouldn´t own "Apollo 13."

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